Visit American Revolution Historic Sites in Concord, MA
The Concord Museum, at 53 Cambridge Turnpike, has a collection of artifacts used on the day the American Revolution began: Muskets, powder horns, flints, and of course, one of the two lanterns that Paul Revere had placed in the steeple of Boston’s Old North Church to signal the patriots of the advance of the Redcoats. (Other periods of Concord history are represented, too, including Henry David Thoreau’s desk and other items, and Native American stone tools going back 10,000 years.) Watch the Museum’s website for an all-new exhibit opening in 2021 that tells the story of April 19, 1775.
Concord Visitor Center, at 58 Main Street, offers a walking tour of the center of town that tells how settlers came here from England, and events led them to rebel against their mother country. You’ll also hear how that spirit of independence inspired a later generation of Concord residence to create a new, uniquely American voice in literature.
The Old Manse, at 269 Monument St., was built in 1770 by Concord’s Patriot Preacher, Rev. William Emerson. On a tour of the house, you can look out the window where his family watched the battle at the North Bridge in 1775. You’ll also get to know some of the house’s later famous residents, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
At the Old North Bridge and Minuteman National Park, next door to the Old Manse, you can stand on the spot where Concord’s Minute Men fired “the shot heard ’round the world in 1775.” Highlights include the 1875 Minute Man statue by Daniel Chester French and the grave of two Redcoats killed in that historic battle. In season, you may meet a costumed reenactor at the bridge, and see uniforms, weapons, and an interactive 3-D map at the National Park Visitor Center at 174 Liberty St.
